August 19, 2017

Some of you might have noticed some new, cool forces gracing our store section's cabinets this summer. These are hand-picked highlights from our dear player community and from Fight Club combatants that have been kind enough to have us display their armies! This exhibition will now be accompanied by mini interviews to shed light on the artists behind these brilliant collections. These interviews are conducted in English because of our community's international flavour. Today we introduce scene active Dave Jackson!

Who are you and what do you do besides play wargames?

David, Englishman, all-round nerd. I love 40k, Warmahordes, D&D and PoGo and if I have any spare time I also try to do some working, daddying and husbanding.How did you first begin the hobby?
Hero Quest and Space Crusade were my gateway drugs. After that my brothers and I bought some Games Workshop minis from a kid in the next village. A random collection of half built, half painted 40k, Fantasy, Epic and 'miscellaneous'. It was awesome! We bodged together our own homebrew ruleset incorporating all of the minis at once and the long war began. Battles were epic, took up entire bedroom floors and lasted all day. Good times.What armies do you play? What's your favourite kind of roster?
I'm all about Nurgle. Primarily Death Guard but with some Nurgle Daemons and Nurgle themed renegade support. I stick fairly rigorously to the fluff so you'll never see DG raptors or heavy weapon toting havocs on my watch but I always try to make my fluffy combos work for me as competitively as possible.

What is your fondest gaming memory?
That's a tough one. In almost three decades of gaming, I have a lot of very fond memories and am gathering more all of the time but I think my personal golden age of miniature gaming was Necromunda. Me, my brothers and just about every kid in the village had a gang and were super in to it. We'd all amass at one of our houses, build huge underhive complexes using anything we could find around the house, and engage in brutal gang warfare into the wee hours.What is your best tournament / campaign achievement?
I don't really do the competitive scene but I have had some good placements in fluffy events and once got the best army award which I'm very proud of.Who is your arch rival in the Fight Club or in tournaments?
Travis. In 40k certainly but also in life in general. We are polar opposites but completely alike. He annoys the hell out of me but is the most fun guy to be around. I hate him. I love him.Who is your favourite character in the 40K lore? Why is that?
Forgive me Father Nurgle. I love the story of Magnus. The tragedy of his story is irresistible.A single commendation and a piece of criticism for the 8th edition?
I've only played one game so am not exactly an authority but I really enjoyed taking turns to deploy units - a definite improvement. As for criticism, I didn't like the way characters are now virtually immune to shooting thanks to the targeting rules. I think that needs a big rethink.

August 12, 2017

Some of you might have noticed some new, cool forces gracing our store section's cabinets this summer. These are hand-picked highlights from our dear player community and from Fight Club combatants that have been kind enough to have us display their armies! This exhibition will now be accompanied by mini interviews to shed light on the artists behind these brilliant collections. These interviews are conducted in English because of our community's international flavour. Today we introduce Wolf Lord Antti Halonen!

Who are you and what do you do besides play wargames?

My name is Antti Halonen and I’m an IT engineer. My hobbies besides wargames are all of the other nerdy hobbies.

How did you first begin the hobby?

I got interested in the world of 40K in the early 90’s when I first played Space Crusade (or rather read the awesome rule and campaign books).

I started the hobby in 1999 when I moved to another city and met Jamo who was playing Fantasy Battle at the time. I got really interested about wargaming, but the price of an army was a bit too much for me then. Then Mordheim was released and it was the perfect place to start the hobby.

After about a year of playing the crap out of Mordheim my dad gave me a Battleforce of Space Wolves instead of the Mordheim figures I asked for (an easy mistake to make) and I was a Space Wolves player from that point on.

What armies do you play? What's your favourite kind of roster?

Well, this is the part where my obsession shows. I have the following armies:

I like to play lists that can punch and shoot, but I like the punching more. So Grey Hunters/Slayers in Rhinos with some support units is a good fit for me. I also like to make themed lists, but they aren’t always the most fun to play. But they are the most fun to build and paint.

What is your fondest gaming memory?

My fondest gaming memories are from the countless games of Mordheim I have played. In one campaign my Witch Hunter captain had Stupidity and Frenzy. That guy was really out of control. In one game he first jumped out of a third floor window because of Stupidity and then charged into a Possessed warband alone because of Frenzy.

In another campaign I had one orc that was constantly failing the Animosity tests and was killing his “friends” left and right. He even killed my warboss, so naturally he became the new boss.

What is your best tournament / campaign achievement?

My best tournament achievement by playing was that one time I would have won the Ropecon 40K tournament, if my points would have been calculated correctly.

But the important achievements are the numerous Best Painted army awards I have won. Finally the years of painting and converting are bearing fruit and I am happy with the minis I can do.

Who is your arch rival in the Fight Club or in tournaments? Describe your relationship!

My oldest arch rival is Jamo and his Eldar. I have been fighting those from the start. He hasn’t played 40K lately, but I hope that the 8th edition will change that.

Nowadays the artist formerly know as Natunen has taken the spot of the arch rival and the games with him are always fought with vigour. These games are not for “Forging the narrative”, but for becoming a better player. You can play hard without being a dick!

In 30K tournaments, Noa and his Iron Warriors seem to find my Wolves every time and the games are always fun and hard fought.

Who is your favourite character in the 40K lore? Why is that?

My favourite character is Lufgt Huron, before he became a Chaos Lord. His story and the story of the whole Badab War isn’t the same “Marines good, Chaos bad” story that gets repeated ad infinitum in the fluff. Huron feels like a real character and not just a caricature evil dude. I really hope that Forge World remakes the Badab War books for the 8th edition.

A single commendation and a piece of criticism for the 8th edition?

I like the removal of the bloat of rules that have been piled on the 3rd edition rules during 4th - 7th editions and codexes. The game actually feels like a different game now. Too early for me to tell if the new core rules are actually better than the old one, but I’m mostly liking it so far.

One thing that I don’t like in 8th is the format of codexes and indexes. I would prefer that I could see the points costs in the datasheet and that the rules that do the exactly same thing would have the same name i.e. Deep Strike should be called Deep Strike everywhere, etc.

August 7, 2017

Some of you might have noticed some new, cool forces gracing our store section's cabinets this summer. These are hand-picked highlights from our dear player community and from Fight Club combatants that have been kind enough to have us display their armies! This exhibition will now be accompanied by mini interviews to shed light on the artists behind these brilliant collections. These interviews are conducted in English because of our community's international flavour. Today we introduce commander Darryn Lee!

Who are you and what do you do besides play wargames?

I'm Darryn Lee, I'm from South Africa but have been living in Finland 6 years now. I'm a school assistant in an English language elementary school in Helsinki. My other hobbies are swimming, being in nature, reading, writing short stories and poetry and learning languages (6 so far and counting!).

How did you first begin the hobby?

I started in 1998 with a single box of skeleton warriors, bone paint and ink wash. I wish I had kept those, I had no idea how to use wash so they were mostly black! I discovered Warhammer at the local shop that sold Dungeons and Dragons supplies and instantly fell in love. Wargaming wasn't so big in my home town back then so I played in my friends garage/gamestore/hobby room for many years as well.

What armies do you play? What's your favourite kind of roster?

I've got Blood Axe Orks, Veterans of the Viet-Nork Waaagh! led by the cunning but brutal Kernul Kill-gore.

An undivided Chaos Daemons army... I like to think either the Changeling or Fateweaver is pulling the strings in that one.

A growing Tyranid Swarm called Hive Fleet Nyoka (isiZulu for snake).

And my beloved Death Korps of Krieg, led by Colonel Flockenstuffen. Big guns never tire!

As you can tell, I love playing hordes (my wallet disagrees!) so my favourite kind of roster is one where I get to drown my opponent in bodies. I'm just a little bit happy that all the horde infantry got cheaper in the newest edition, more boots on ground lads... or claws... or hooves... whatever! Make them run out of bullets!

I've also recently started Gatormen Minions for Warmachine and Hordes.

What is your fondest gaming memory?

That would have to be our yearly journey to ICON in Johannesburg when I was younger. Its the biggest gaming/hobby event in South Africa, we would drive 6 hours to sleep on the floor in the cold (no insulation so around 1 degree inside at night!). We'd be up all night, freezing and painting our last minis for the next day, laughing and reading our rule books one last time, and then get a full two days of gaming against some of the best in SA. Good times and excellent memories.

What is your best tournament / campaign achievement?

My Death Korps recently won best painted army for the white alliance at a War Head tournament. I also won best painted with my Lizardmen way back in 2002 at a tournament in my home town.

Who is your arch rival in the Fight Club or in tournaments?

That would be David "Dirty Daddy" Jackson. I've played his Cryx dozens of times and managed to beat him just once! It really feels like I am a fly walking blindly into his spider web every time I play him... One day David, one day!

Also have to shout out to Travis "crazy ginger hiding in the woods" Finneran. Every game plays out like a Michael Bay movie, explosions, action, excitement and adventure, the personification of forging the narrative.

Who is your favourite character in the 40K lore? Why is that?

That would have to be Private Perkins, the lowly Imperial Guardsman. In a world filled with horrific aliens, never ending war, planet killing weaponry, living nightmares and superhuman soldiers, it's the average human who stands up to these with nothing more than a rifle and a bayonet who are the real heroes.

A single commendation and a piece of criticism for the 8th edition?

I really like how they reset the board and everything is usable again, even the most humble units from the previous editions have a place in the new, and it seems for now that its going to stay that way! There is also a whole new level of tactics around positioning, consolidation and movement. Fun times, good job GW!

I think its too early to criticize 8th edition although I hear the grumbling already. People should enjoy the new breath of fresh air, dust off those unused models and give them a whirl! Its really great fun.

August 4, 2017

Some of you might have noticed some new, cool forces gracing our store section's cabinets this summer. These are hand-picked highlights from our dear player community and from Fight Club combatants that have been kind enough to have us display their armies! This exhibition will now be accompanied by mini interviews to shed light on the artists behind these brilliant collections. These interviews are conducted in English because of our community's international flavour. First up is Horus Heresy enthusiast Sampsa!

Who are you and what do you do besides play wargames?

My name is Sampsa Lahti and I work as a ferry driver in various locations along the Saimaa area. Besides wargaming, I'm the stereotypical nerd with a love for various sorts of computer/console games, fantasy and science fiction.

How did you first begin the hobby?

I first got into the hobby by buying the 'Assault on Black Reach' set with my brother - he took the Orks, I took the Marines, and we taught each other how to play. It's been a long and interesting road from there.

What armies do you play? What's your favourite kind of roster?

Currently I have Salamanders and Necrons for 40K and Death Guard and Mechanicum for 30K, along with an Imperial Fists project I started some time ago. I tend to prefer army rosters with a durable, punchy unit or two as the core - typically heavy armor, like a Land Raider or Monolith - supported with more mobile 'troubleshooter' units. I especially like more flexible solutions over 'overspecialized' units.

What is your fondest gaming memory?

My fondest gaming memory probably is those first few games I played with my brother when we were both new to the game. Simple times and all that. He'd bought himself a Big Mek with a Shokk Attak gun, and I think it was around the second or third time he fired the damn thing that he managed to shoot the Mek at my Ironclad Dreadnought. That.. didn't end so well for him.

What is your best tournament/campaign achievement?

I'd say my best tournament achievement is winning the Best Painted award with my Death Guard at War Head 30K tournament! I tend to spend more time painting than playing and it's super gratifying to see people like my models.

Who is your arch rival in the Fight Club or in tournaments?

I wouldn't say I have an arch rival per say, although there is a certain Word Bearers player I've been itching to have a rematch with. More to the point, I have a very good friend who plays Heresy-era Emperor's Children - he's always entertaining to play with, and our typical army builds tend to be polar opposites of one another - it makes for very interesting matches.

Who is your favourite character in the 40K lore?

My current favorite character is Section Leader Crysos Morturg, a loyalist Death Guard officer from the Horus Heresy. He's a secondary character at best, but you have to give respect for a man who dug himself out of the wreckage of Isstvan III only to give Mortarion the finger. Dude just refused to lay down and die.

A single commendation and a piece of criticism for the 8th edition?

I like how in 8th edition, the 'power level' system lets you field units and loadouts in casual play that would've been suboptimal at best in the past - things like kitted-out squad commanders in particular were a huge point sink compared to the actual use you got out of them. What I most don't like about 8th edition is more of a pet peeve - you can no longer put Dreadnoughts in drop pods, and my whole Salamanders army is more or less built around throwing half a dozen dreadnoughts in drop pods at the other dude! I've seven carefully painted drop pods that aren't likely to see the outside of the shelf in a while.